Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut albumHorses made her an influential member of theNew York City-basedpunk rock movement.[1] Smith has fusedrock andpoetry in her work. In 1978, her most widely known song, "Because the Night," co-written withBruce Springsteen, reached number 13 on theBillboard Hot 100 chart[1] and number five on theUK Singles Chart.
Smith was born on December 30, 1946, at Grant Hospital in theLincoln Park section ofChicago,[6][7] to Beverly Smith, a jazz singer turned waitress, and Grant Smith, aHoneywellmachinist.[8] Her family is of partially Irish ancestry,[9] and Patti is the eldest of four children, with siblings Linda, Kimberly, and Todd.[10]
In 1969, Smith went to Paris with her sister, and startedbusking and doing performance art.[13] When Smith returned to Manhattan, she lived at theHotel Chelsea withRobert Mapplethorpe. They frequentedMax's Kansas City onPark Avenue, and Smith provided thespoken word soundtrack for Sandy Daley's art filmRobert Having His Nipple Pierced, starring Mapplethorpe. The same year, Smith appeared withJayne County inJackie Curtis's playFemme Fatale. She also starred inAnthony Ingrassia's playIsland. As a member of thePoetry Project, she spent the early 1970s painting, writing, and performing.
In 1969, Smith also performed in theone-act playCowboy Mouth,[16] which she co-wrote withSam Shepard. The published play's notes call for "a man who looks like a coyote and a woman who looks like a crow". She wrote several poems about Shepard and her relationship with him, including "for sam shepard"[17] and "Sam Shepard: 9 Random Years (7 + 2)", that were published inAngel City, Curse of the Starving Class & Other Plays (1976).
On February 10, 1971, Smith, accompanied byLenny Kaye on electric guitar, opened forGerard Malanga, which was her first public poetry performance.[18][19]
Smith was briefly considered as lead singer forBlue Öyster Cult. She contributed lyrics to several Blue Öyster Cult songs, including "Debbie Denise", which was inspired by her poems "In Remembrance of Debbie Denise", "Baby Ice Dog", "Career of Evil", "Fire of Unknown Origin", "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", on which she performs duet vocals, and "Shooting Shark". At the time, she was romantically involved withAllen Lanier, Blue Öyster Cult's keyboardist. During these years, Smith was also a rock music journalist, writing periodically forRolling Stone andCreem.[18]
On October 15, 2006, Smith performed a 3½-hourtour de force show to close outCBGB, the famedNew York City live music venue.Smith performing at Primavera Sound Festival inBarcelona, in June 2007Smith performing atHaldern Pop inNorth Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in August 2014Smith performing inBerlin, in June 2022
In 1973, Smith teamed up again with musician and rock archivist Lenny Kaye, and later addedRichard Sohl on piano. The trio developed into a full band with the addition ofIvan Král on guitar and bass andJay Dee Daugherty on drums.[18] Kral was a refugee fromCzechoslovakia who had moved to the US in 1966 with his parents, who were both diplomats. After theSoviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Kral decided not to return.[20]
Financed bySam Wagstaff, the band recorded their first single, "Hey Joe/Piss Factory" in 1974. The A-side was a version of the rock standard with the addition of a spoken word piece aboutPatty Hearst, a fugitive heiress. The B-side describes the helpless alienation Smith felt while working on a factoryassembly line and the salvation she dreams of achieving by escaping to New York City.[1] In a 1996 interview on artistic influences during her younger years, Smith said, "I had devoted so much of my girlish daydreams toRimbaud. Rimbaud was like my boyfriend."[21]
In March 1975, Smith's group, the Patti Smith Group, began a two-month weekend set of shows atCBGB in New York City with the bandTelevision. The Patti Smith Group was spotted byClive Davis, who signed them toArista Records.
Later that year, the Patti Smith Group recorded their debut album,Horses, produced byJohn Cale amid some tension.[18] The album fusedpunk rock and spoken poetry and begins with a cover ofVan Morrison's "Gloria", and Smith's opening words: "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine", an excerpt from "Oath", one of Smith's early poems. The austere cover photograph by Mapplethorpe has become one of rock's classic images.[22]
As punk rock grew in popularity, the Patti Smith Group toured the U.S. and Europe. The rawer sound of the group's second album,Radio Ethiopia, reflected this. Considerably less accessible thanHorses,Radio Ethiopia initially received poor reviews. However, several of its songs have stood the test of time, and Smith still performs them live.[23] She has said thatRadio Ethiopia was influenced by the bandMC5.[21]
On January 23, 1977, while touring in support ofRadio Ethiopia, Smith accidentally danced off a high stage inTampa, Florida, and fell 15-feet onto a concreteorchestra pit, breaking severalcervical vertebrae.[24] The injury required a period of rest andphysical therapy, during which she says she was able to reassess, reenergize, and reorganize her life.
The Patti Smith Group produced two further albums.Easter, released in 1978, was their most commercially successful record. It included the band's top single "Because the Night", co-written withBruce Springsteen.Wave (1979) was less successful, although the songs "Frederick" and "Dancing Barefoot" received commercial airplay.[25]
Through most of the 1980s, Patti lived with her family inSt. Clair Shores, Michigan, and was semi-retired from music. She ultimately moved back to New York City.
Michael Stipe ofR.E.M. andAllen Ginsberg, whom she had known since her early years in New York City, urged her return to live music and touring. She toured briefly withBob Dylan in December 1995, which is chronicled in a book of photographs by Stipe.[16]
In 1996, Smith worked with her long-time colleagues to recordGone Again, featuring "About a Boy", a tribute toKurt Cobain, the former lead singer ofNirvana who died bysuicide in 1994.
On April 27, 2004, Smith releasedTrampin', which included several songs about motherhood, partly in tribute to Smith's mother, who died two years earlier. It was her first album onColumbia Records, which later became asister label to herArista Records, her previous label. Smith curated theMeltdown festival in London on June 25, 2005, in which she performedHorses live in its entirety for the first time.[29] This live performance was released later in 2004 asHorses/Horses.
On October 15, 2006, Smith performed a 3½-hourtour de force show to close out atCBGB, which was an immensely influential New York City live music venue for much of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. At the CBGB show, Smith took the stage at 9:30 p.m. (EDT) and closed her show a few minutes after 1:00 am. Her final song was "Elegie", after which she read a list ofpunk rock musicians and advocates who had died in the previous years, representing the last public song and words performed at the iconic venue.[30]
On September 10, 2009, after a week of smaller events and exhibitions inFlorence, Smith played an open-air concert atPiazza Santa Croce, commemorating her performance in the same city 30 years earlier.[31]
Smith's 11th studio album,Banga, was released in June 2012.American Songwriter wrote that, "These songs aren't as loud or frantic as those of her late 70s heyday, but they resonate just as boldly as she moans, chants, speaks and spits out lyrics with the grace and determination ofMuhammad Ali in his prime. It's not an easy listen—the vast majority of her music never has been—but if you're a fan and/or prepared for the challenge, this is as potent, heady and uncompromising as she has ever gotten, and with Smith's storied history as a musical maverick, that's saying plenty."[34]Metacritic awarded the album a score of 81, indicating "universal acclaim".[35]
Also in 2012, Smith recorded a cover ofIo come persona by Italian singer-songwriterGiorgio Gaber.[36][37]
In 2015, Smith wrote "Aqua Teen Dream" to commemorate the series finale ofAqua Teen Hunger Force. The vocal track was recorded in a hotel overlookingLerici's Bay of Poets.[38] On September 26, 2015, Smith performed at theAmerican Museum of Tort Law convocation ceremony.[39]
In 2016, Smith performed "People Have the Power" atRiverside Church in Manhattan to celebrate the 20th anniversary ofDemocracy Now, where she was joined byMichael Stipe. On December 10, 2016, Smith attended the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony inStockholm on behalf ofBob Dylan, winner of theNobel Prize in Literature, who could not be present due to prior commitments.
After the official presentation speech for the literary prize byHorace Engdahl, the perpetual secretary of theSwedish Academy, Smith sang the Dylan song "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".[41] She missung one verse, singing, "I saw the babe that was just bleedin'," and was momentarily unable to continue.[42] After a brief apology, saying that she was nervous, she resumed the song and earned jubilant applause at its end.[43][44]
From March 28 to June 22, 2008, theFondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris hosted a major exhibition of the visual artwork ofLand 250, drawn from pieces created by Smith between 1967 and 2007.[47]
In 2010, Smith's bookJust Kids, a memoir of her time inManhattan in the 1970s and her relationship withRobert Mapplethorpe, was published. The book won theNational Book Award for Nonfiction later that year.[4][49] In 2018, a new edition ofJust Kids, including additional photographs and illustrations, was published. Smith also headlined a benefit concert headed by bandmate Tony Shanahan, for Court Tavern inNew Brunswick, New Jersey.[50] Smith's set included "Gloria", "Because the Night", and "People Have the Power".
In 2011, Smith announced the first museum exhibition of her photography in the U.S.,Camera Solo. She named the project after a sign she saw in the abode ofPope Celestine V, which translates as "a room of one's own", and which Smith felt best described her solitary method of photography.[45] The exhibition featured artifacts that were everyday items or places of significance to artists Smith admires, includingRimbaud,Charles Baudelaire,John Keats, andWilliam Blake. In February 2012, she was a guest at theSanremo Music Festival.[51]
Also in 2011, Smith was working on a crime novel set in London. "I've been working on a detective story that starts at theSt Giles in the Fields church in London for the last two years", she toldNME, adding that she "loved detective stories" and was a fan of British fictional detectiveSherlock Holmes and U.S. crime authorMickey Spillane in her youth.[52][53]
In 2017, Smith appeared as herself inSong to Song oppositeRooney Mara andRyan Gosling, directed byTerrence Malick.[55][56] She later made an appearance at the Detroit show of U2's The Joshua Tree 2017 tour and performed "Mothers of the Disappeared" with the band.[57]
In 2019, Smith performed "People Have the Power" withStewart Copeland andChoir! Choir! Choir! at Onassis Festival 2019: Democracy Is Coming. Later that year, she released her latest book,Year of the Monkey.[61] "A captivating, redemptive chronicle of a year in which Smith looked intently into the abyss", statedKirkus Reviews.[62]
One of the first musicians to reference Smith wasTodd Rundgren. In theliner notes of his 1972 albumSomething/Anything?, Rundgren wrote that "Song of the Viking" was "written in the feverish grip of the dreaded 'd'oyle carte,' a chronic disease dating back to my youth. Dedicated to Miss Patti Lee Smith." Seven years later, Rundgren produced the final Patti Smith Group album,Wave.[65]
Hole's "Violet", released in 1994, features the lyrics, "And the sky was all violet / I want it again, but violent, more violent," alluding to lyrics from Smith's song "Kimberly".[68] In 2010, Hole singerCourtney Love said that she considered Smith's "Rock N Roll Nigger" the greatest rock song of all time,[69] and credited Smith as a major influence. Love received Smith's albumHorses in juvenile hall as a teenager, and "realized that you could do something that was completely subversive that didn't involve violence [or] felonies. I stopped making trouble."[70]
In 1998,Michael Stipe ofR.E.M. published a collection of photos, titledTwo Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith. Stipe sings backing vocals on Smith's "Last Call" and "Glitter in Their Eyes". Smith sang background vocals onR.E.M.'s "E-Bow the Letter" and "Blue".[71] A decade later, in 2008, Stipe said that Smith's albumHorses was one of his inspirations. "I decided then that I was going to start a band," Stipe said about the impact of listening toHorses.[72]
In 2004,Shirley Manson ofGarbage spoke of Smith's influence on her inRolling Stone's issue "The Immortals: 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", in which Smith was ranked 47th.[74]The Smiths membersMorrissey andJohnny Marr share an appreciation for Smith'sHorses, and revealed that their song "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" is a reworking of one of the album's tracks, "Kimberly".[75] In 2004,Sonic Youth released an album calledHidros 3 (to Patti Smith).[76]
In 2005,U2 cited Smith as an influence.[77] The same year,Scottish singer-songwriterKT Tunstall released "Suddenly I See", a single, as a tribute of sorts to Smith.[78] Canadian actorElliot Page frequently mentions Smith as one of his idols and has done various photo shoots replicating famous Smith photos, and Irish actressMaria Doyle Kennedy often refers to Smith as a major influence.[79]
"She was the epitome of a literate, intelligent woman taking charge and being respected by her peers," observedMaria McKee in 2005.[80]
In 2012,Madonna named Smith as one of her biggest influences.[81]
In 2012, Smith was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts fromPratt Institute inBrooklyn.[82] Following conferral of her degree, Smith delivered the commencement address[83] and played two songs along with long-time band memberLenny Kaye. In her Pratt Institute commencement address, Smith said that when she moved to New York City in 1967, she would never have been accepted into Pratt but most of her friends, including Mapplethorpe, were students at Pratt, and she spent countless hours on the Pratt campus. She added that it was through her friends and Pratt professors that she learned many of her own artistic skills.[84]
In 2018, the English bandFlorence and the Machine dedicated theHigh as Hope album song "Patricia" to Smith. The lyrics reference Smith asFlorence Welch's "North Star".[85] Canadian country musicianOrville Peck cited Smith as having had a big impact on him, stating that Smith's albumHorses introduced him to a new and different way to make music.[86]Poetic singer songwriter Joustene Lorenz also cites Patti Smith as a 'powerful influence' on her life and music.[87]
In November 2020, Smith was set to receive the International Humanities Prize fromWashington University in St. Louis in November 2020; however, the ceremony was canceled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[88] In 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters fromColumbia University.[89] Also in 2022, Smith was named an Officer of the FrenchLegion of Honor (Officier de l’Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur). The award was presented to her at the "Night of Ideas" cultural celebration in Brooklyn, by the French ambassador to the United States,Philippe Étienne.[90]
I wrote both these songs directly in response to events that I felt outraged about. These are injustices against children and the young men and women who are being incarcerated. I'm an American, I pay taxes in my name and they are giving millions and millions of dollars to a country such as Israel andcluster bombs and defense technology and those bombs were dropped on common citizens in Qana. It's terrible. It's a human rights violation.
In a 2009 interview, Smith stated that Kurnaz's family had contacted her and that she wrote a short preface for the book that he was writing,[100] which was released in March 2008.[101]
In March 2003, ten days after the murder ofRachel Corrie, Smith appeared inAustin, Texas and performed an anti-war concert, and subsequently wrote "Peaceable Kingdom", a song inspired by and dedicated to Corrie.[102] In 2009, in her Meltdown concert in Festival Hall, she paid homage to the Iranians taking part inpost-election protests by saying "Where is My Vote?" in a version of the song "People Have the Power".[103]
In 2020, Smith contributed signed first-edition copies of her books to the Passages bookshop inPortland, Oregon after the store's valuable first-edition and other books by various authors were stolen in a burglary.[111] Smith regardsclimate change as the predominant issue of our time, and performed at the opening ofCOP26 in 2021.[112]
On February 24, 2022, Smith performed at TheCapitol Theatre (Port Chester, New York) for the first time,[114] saying, "I would be lying if I said I wasn't affected by what is happening in the world" referencing theRussian invasion of Ukraine earlier that day. "Peace as we know it is over in Europe", she said.[115] "This is what I heard in my sleep and goes through my head all day all night long like a tragic hit song. A raw translation of theUkrainian anthem that the people are singing through defiant tears", she wrote onInstagram on March 6, 2022.[116]
Smith was raised aJehovah's Witness and had a strong religious upbringing and aBiblical education. She says she leftorganized religion as a teenager because she found it too confining. This experience inspired her lyrics, "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine", which appear on her cover version of "Gloria" byThem.[117] She has described having an avid interest inTibetan Buddhism around the age of 11 or 12, saying "I fell in love withTibet because their essential mission was to keep a continual stream of prayer," but that as an adult she sees clear parallels between different forms of religion and has concluded thatreligious dogmas are "…man-made laws that you can either decide to abide by or not."[21]
In 2014, she was invited byPope Francis to play at Vatican Christmas concert.[118] "It's a Christmas concert for the people, and it's being televised. I like Pope Francis and I'm happy to sing for him. Anyone who would confine me to a line from 20 years ago is a fool! I had a strong religious upbringing, and the first word on my first LP is Jesus. I did a lot of thinking. I'm not against Jesus, but I was 20 and I wanted to make my own mistakes and I didn't want anyone dying for me. I stand behind that 20-year-old girl, but I have evolved. I'll sing to my enemy! I don't like being pinned down and I'll do what the fuck I want, especially at my age...oh, I hope there's no small children here!" she said.[119]
In 2021, she performed at the Vatican again, tellingDemocracy Now! that she studiedFrancis of Assisi whenPope Benedict XVI was still the pope. Smith called Francis of Assisi "truly the environmentalist saint" and said that despite not being a Catholic, she had hoped for a pope named Francis.[120]
According to biographer Nick Johnstone, Smith has often been "revered" as a "feminist icon",[121] including byThe Guardian journalistSimon Hattenstone in a 2013 profile on the musician.[122]
In 2014, Smith offered her opinion on the sexualization ofwomen in music. "Pop music has always been about the mainstream and what appeals to the public. I don't feel it's my place to judge." Smith historically and presently declines to embracefeminism, saying, "I have a son and a daughter, people always talk to me about feminism andwomen's rights, but I have a son too—I believe inhuman rights."[123]
In 2015, writer Anwen Crawford observed that Smith's "attitude to genius seems pre-feminist, if notanti-feminist; there is no democratizing, deconstructing impulse in her work. True artists, for Smith, are remote, solitary figures of excellence, wholly dedicated to their art."[124]
In 2024, Smith, along with Yoko Ono and Sandra Bloodworth, was awarded the Municipal Art Society of New York’s highest honor, the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal. The Medal is awarded annually to individuals who, through vision, leadership, and philanthropy, have made a lasting contribution to New York City.[129]
In 1967, 20-year-old Smith left Glassboro State College (nowRowan University) and moved toManhattan, where she began working at Scribner’s bookstore with friend and poetJanet Hamill. On April 26, 1967, at age 20, Smith gave birth to her first child, a daughter, and placed her for adoption.[15]
While working at the bookstore she met photographerRobert Mapplethorpe, with whom she began an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as the pair struggled with poverty and Mapplethorpe's sexuality. Smith used Mapplethorpe's photographs of her as covers for her albums, and she wrote essays for several of his books, including his posthumousFlowers, at his request.[130] The two remained friends until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989.[131]
Smith considers Mapplethorpe to be among the most influential and important people in her life. She calls him "the artist of my life" in her bookJust Kids, which tells the story of their relationship. Her book and albumThe Coral Sea is an homage to Mapplethorpe.
Smith (left) and her daughter Jesse Smith at theTime 100 gala in 2011
In 1979, at approximately age 32, Smith separated from her long-time partnerAllen Lanier and metFred "Sonic" Smith, the former guitar player forMichigan-based rock bandMC5 andSonic's Rendezvous Band. Like Patti, Fred adored poetry. "Dancing Barefoot", which was inspired byJeanne Hébuterne and her tragic love forAmedeo Modigliani, and "Frederick" were both dedicated to him.[132] A running joke at the time was that she married Fred only because she would not have to change her name.[133] They had a son, Jackson (b. 1982), who went on to marryMeg White, drummer forThe White Stripes, from 2009 to 2013,[134] and a daughter, Jesse Paris (b. 1987), who is a musician and composer.[135]
Fred Smith died of a heart attack on November 4, 1994. Shortly afterward, Patti faced the unexpected death of her brother Todd.[13]
^LaGorce, Tammy (December 11, 2005)."Patti Smith, New Jersey's Truest Rock-Poet".The New York Times. New York City.Archived from the original on July 24, 2009. RetrievedJuly 20, 2010.But of all the ways to know Patti Smith, few people, including Ms. Smith, would think to embrace her as Deptford Township's proudest export.
^ab"Patti Smith: Biography".The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. 2001. Archived fromthe original on December 12, 2007. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2008.
^Carson, Tom (January 29, 2010)."The Night Belongs to Us".The New York Times.Archived from the original on February 5, 2010. RetrievedFebruary 10, 2010.
^"Violet" includes the line, "And the sky was all violet / I want it again but violent, more violent." "Kimberly" also includes the phrase "violent, violet sky".
^Love, Courtney. "Fashion Faux Paus".Running Russell Simmons. November 20, 2010. Oxygen Network.
^"Courtney Love".Behind the Music. June 21, 2010. VH1.
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